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| Album
Information |
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| Released:
Jan - Feb 1977 |
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| Recorded:
April – November
1976 |
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| Genre:
Progressive rock |
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| Length:
41:46 |
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| Label:
Harvest (UK original) |
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| Columbia
(U.S. original) |
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| Producer:
Pink Floyd |
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Album Art |
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Background
Animals is a concept album by English rock band
Pink Floyd, released on 23 January 1977 in the
UK and on 2 February 1977 in the U.S. The album
proved a success in America, reaching #3 on the
Billboard album charts. However, it was on the
American charts for only six months even though
it has continued to sell solidly, to the extent
of its having gone quadruple platinum, according
to the RIAA.
The album appears to be heavily inspired by George
Orwell's Animal Farm as, through the central three
songs, Roger Waters uses three animals as anthropomorphic
metaphors for human behavior: dogs, pigs, or sheep.
Dogs are used to represent the megalomaniac businessmen
who think they are in control but are finished
by being dragged down by "the weight [they]
used to need to throw around". Pigs refers
to and is an attack upon those who are really/would
be in control, politicians and opinion leaders,
with direct references to Mary Whitehouse, who
at the time was leading a campaign to "clean
up TV". Those who do not fall into either
of these two categories are sheep, who follow
blindly, without any self-thought – though
hope is perhaps provided when they rebel and at
least kill one of the dogs persecuting them.
While singer and guitarist David Gilmour is only
credited for the music of one track, the epic
"Dogs", which was previously known as
"You Gotta Be Crazy", was actually a
band composition with Waters writing the lyrics.
This song and "Raving and Drooling"
which would later become "Sheep" was
also a band composition from around 1974, originally
destined for the Wish You Were Here album. The
discrepancies with the credits and actual writing
is directly related to the increasing tensions
in the band.
Each song on the album reflects Waters' socialist
beliefs about the class system found in capitalistic
societies. The anthropomorphic symbols of the
'dog', the 'pig', and the 'sheep', shift in meaning
throughout the album which often leads to some
confusion as to Waters' intended meaning in the
lyrics. The 'dog', for instance, changes from
a symbol for the heartless businessman in "Dogs"
to the object of an irrational fear put forward
by the pigs (politicians) in the song "Sheep"
to scare the sheep (common people). The meaning
of the three symbols changes from song to song,
so the lyrics of each song should be interpreted
independently.
The three core songs are bookended by a pair of
love songs written by Waters for his then-wife
Caroline: "Pigs on the Wing, Part 1"
and "Pigs on the Wing, Part 2". Both
are in stark contrast to the misanthropic middle
three songs, and suggest that companionship can
help us overcome our flaws – though the final
line suggests the singer admits he is/was once
one of the dogs. For the 8-track cartridge release,
which looped, Parts 1 and 2 were linked by a guitar
bridge performed by Snowy White (subsequently
available on White's 1996 album "Goldtop:
Groups & Sessions"), and the 17:08 song
"Dogs" was cut into two tracks.
The giant, helium-filled pig seen on the cover
was actually flown over Battersea Power Station
for the photo shoot (under the direction of Storm
Thorgerson). On the first day of shooting, a marksman
was on hand in case the pig broke free. However,
according to Thorgerson, this was considered an
"insurance problem", and he was not
hired for the second day of shooting. Ironically,
on December 3, 1976, during the second day, a
gust of wind broke the pig free of its moorings.
Because there was no one to shoot the pig down,
it sailed away into the morning sky. A passenger
plane reported seeing the pig, causing all the
flights at London Heathrow Airport to be delayed.
A police helicopter was sent up to track the pig,
but was forced to return after following the pig
to an altitude of 5,000 feet. A warning was sent
out to pilots that a giant, flying pink pig was
loose in the area. The CAA lost radar contact
on the pig near Chatham in Kent, at a height of
18,000 feet and flying East. It finally landed
in a farmer's field (without much damage). They
then repaired the pig, and flew it up for a third
time. The resulting pictures were not deemed suitable
on their own (as the clear, blue sky from day
three was thought to be much less evocative),
and the final image was made as a composite of
the power station picture from day one and the
pig from day three.
The album had custom picture labels, using drummer
Nick Mason's handwriting as a typeface, as did
the lyrics on the liner sleeve. Side one's label
depicted a fish-eye lens view of a dog and the
English countryside. Side two's was similar, but
featured a pig and sheep instead of the dog.
Originally released on Columbia Records in the
U.S. and Harvest Records in the UK, Animals was
then re-released as a digitally remastered CD
in 1994 in the UK on EMI. In 1997, Columbia Records
issued an updated remaster (which sounded superior
to the EMI remasters from 1994) in the United
States, Canada, Australia, South America and Japan.
Animals was re-released in April 2000, Capitol
Records in the U.S. and EMI in Canada, Australia,
South America and Japan re-released the 1997 remaster
with the artwork from the EMI Europe remaster.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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